Empowering Change Conference

Who should attend?

School leaders working in early years primary and secondary settings, special schools, alternative providers including trust leaders and aspiring leaders.

Why attend?

In this complex and uncertain world, we need leaders and school teams who aren’t just resilient, but have empathy, self-awareness, and an understanding of what humans need to do well. We need to shift away from ‘toughing it out’, to working to support and lift each other to make our schools happy and thriving communities.

NAHT’s Empowering Change Conference 2024 explores what it really means to be mentally fit (hint: it’s not all about being tough or resilient) and how to understand and overcome the ways we self-sabotage, making life harder than necessary.

We are pleased to announce Rachel Younger, NAHT President will open the conference.  Final words and closing of the conference will be given by Angi Gibson, NAHT Vice President.

How is this conference different?

This event will bring together into one place all sectors within education, with a focus on those who previously enjoyed their own sector council conference events, for example SEND Sector Council, Early Years and Primary Sector Council, and Secondary Sector Council, (School Leaders Summit).

Keynote Speakers

Action Jackson

The self-proclaimed ‘UK Ambassador for Happiness Action Jackson' is an award-winning motivational speaker, best-selling author, TV host and lover of life.

If you factor in TEDx speaker, influencer, multiple marathon runner, London to Brighton bike rider, entrepreneur, husband, son, and father (note, the list is not in priority order!), you will understand why he is better known as ‘Action Jackson.’

Jackson loves simplicity. He believes that life is to be lived fully. He works with educators and leaders of the next generation and his message is always the same: Rise up people. Our young people need us! Jackson is passionate about transforming individuals, teams, and entire youth cultures. For him, it’s about raising the bar to ‘world class'. Action Jackson is the most motivated motivational speaker you will ever hear. 

Lisa Read

A former school leader, Lisa holds qualifications in coaching, emotional intelligence, neuroscience and more. Working extensively within education, and also within the union movement and the Labour Party; Lisa is regularly hired by government ministers such as Angela Rayner, David Lammy and Louise Haigh to work with their teams. Sharing Real Clear’s unique model of mental fitness, based on 20+ years of research and practice, you’ll discover:

• The key components that make up mental fitness.
• How balanced you are in the ‘Big Four’ muscles of mental fitness.
• Your ‘mental fitness exercise plan’ based on your unique strengths and development areas for yourself…and what might be needed for the team.

​Chris Zarraga

Chris is the Director of School North East. He has been part of the Schools North East team since its operational inception in 2008 and in 2019 he was appointed Director. Chris works with senior leaders across the North East and nationally in the education and charity sectors, to represent the voice of North East schools. A central part of his work is to lobby politicians, policy makers, and the media to put a strong ‘regional accent’ on the education debate, so that North East schools are not left behind when it comes to education policy.

Under Chris, Schools North East launched the ‘Manifesto for North East Education’. The manifesto sets out the perennial challenges that impact educational opportunities in the North East and the principles needed to inform any educational policy wanting to address them.

Chris works with hundreds of schools across the North East and various organisations including Ofsted, the DfE, the North East’s universities, Local Authorities and various regional/national businesses. Prior to joining Schools North East, he led a £1.4 million culture change project in education across the North East for the Treasury and DfE and was responsible for setting up a multi-million pound Enterprise Education Network.

Chris sits on various advisory boards including the NHS Integrated Care Boards, various Combined Authority advisory boards, and was a member of the DfE’s Opportunity North East strategic board. He has also sat on various boards for North East Universities. As well as being a Director of two North East multi academy trusts, Chris has been Chair of a 3 school Trust, Vice Chair of a large maintained secondary school and Vice Chair of a primary foundation school.

​Thank you to our Sponsors Education Boutique

Education Boutique partners with school and trust leaders to provide tailored support when SEND and EBSA learners can't access education in a school setting. We deliver bespoke academic packages designed to re-engage and reintegrate these learners into school, an alternative setting, or the workplace. By offering in-person support with SEN specialist educators, we help schools maintain oversight of their most vulnerable students, setting them on a sustainable path toward reintegration.

Meet our Exhibitors

We’re excited to announce that six exhibitors will be joining us at our conference. Click here to see who they are.

Workshops